Outraged Paris Saint-Germain president Nasser Al-Khelaifi attempted to confront the referee to vent his fury after the French team suffered a familiar Champions League collapse against Real Madrid on Wednesday night, according to reports.
Despite their star-studded line-up including a front three of Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe and Neymar, PSG suffered yet more European agony as a second-half hat-trick from the inspired Karim Benzema in the space of just 17 minutes condemned the French club to a 3-2 loss on aggregate in their last 16 clash.
The defeat came after PSG appeared to be cruising when Mbappe doubled their aggregate advantage by opening the scoring in the 39th minute at the Bernabeu – a venue which many expect the precocious 23-year-old to call home next season.
But the tide turned when Benzema forced PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma into a mistake before scoring the first of his three goals in the 61st minute – with the Parisians arguing that the French forward fouled the Italian in the build-up.
From there, Benzema struck twice more, including a third goal which came just 11 seconds after the restart, as Messi and Co. were left crestfallen and the Argentine failed to score for a ninth successive game against Real.
The early exit and grievances with the officiating apparently proved too much to stomach for Al-Khelaifi, as PSG’s Qatari benefactors saw their dreams of Champions League glory evaporate for another season.
According to reports, an enraged Al-Khelaifi and PSG sporting director Leonardo went in search of referee Danny Makkelie after the match to vent their fury at the decision not to award a foul on Donnarumma by Benzema.
The PSG pair are said to have stormed from the presidential box at the Bernabeu and were initially unable to find the match officials’ room, instead bursting into the office of a Real Madrid delegate, according to Marca.
Upon locating the referee’s room they reportedly hammered on the door, with ESPN citing a source as saying they had “never seen club executives behave like that.”
According to Goal.com, the referee’s match report detailed the outburst as Al-Khelaifi is alleged to have “behaved aggressively and tried to enter the referee’s dressing room.”
“When the referee asked them to leave, the president hit a piece of the assistant’s equipment, breaking it.”
Security staff were said to have stepped in to calm the tensions, while AS claims that a member of the Real Madrid staff captured the scenes on camera, including a sinister threat, which could be part of any investigation into a man who is member of UEFA’s Executive Committee.
In post-match comments, PSG director Leonardo claimed that the decision not to award a foul on Donnarumma was “not fair” as he spoke to the media.
“The foul exists and it is clear. It’s impossible not to consult the VAR,” the Brazilian fumed to Canal+.
“But I’m not looking for excuses. We’ll have to see what we did.”
PSG manager Mauricio Pochettino was less restrained in his assessment as the Argentine will face mounting pressure on his position come the end of the season.
“It’s a feeling of a lot of injustice, with the goal we conceded,” said Pochettino, who has been consistently linked with a move to the Manchester United dugout.
“It’s a clear foul from Benzema on Donnarumma. The emotional state of the game changed and we were very exposed. It’s a tremendous blow because we were better in the tie. We were better for 180 minutes.”
After conceding Benzema’s first goal, PSG collapsed in all-too-familiar fashion as the Frenchman etched his name further into the history books at Los Blancos, becoming their fourth highest scorer of all time with 309 strikes to his name, behind only Cristiano Ronaldo and Raul.
In Champions League terms, Benzema now has 67 goals in Europe’s elite club competition – putting him ahead of Raul and second only to Ronaldo in Real Madrid colors – while his treble at the age of 34 years and 80 days old made him the oldest hat-trick scorer ever in the Champions League-era of the tournament.
Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti – who guided the club to the Champions League title in 2014 during his first spell in charge – hailed Benzema and veteran Croatian midfielder Luca Modric, while the Italian boss himself won praise for injecting more energy into the team by bringing on youngsters Rodrygo and Eduardo Camavinga in the 57th minute.
“The changes have come at a time when they changed the dynamics of the match,” said Ancelotti.
“It wasn’t just a tactical change, but we had a lot of energy.”
Thirteen-time winners Real will now wait to see who they face in the quarterfinals, while PSG are consigned to another season of domestic silverware as they see out their Ligue 1 campaign, where they hold a 13-point lead at the top of the table.